lemonade | ethan

one

ethan
morning before school

"have you seen my inhaler?" my sister allie asks, passing me my backpack as we walked past each other in the small crowded hallway of our tiny home.

i look next to me, quickly glancing into the bathroom and snatching her inhaler that was sitting on the sink counter. i toss it to her, a smirk on my face. "you keep leaving it around like that and you might just die."

"ha ha, you can't get rid of me that easy." she says, sticking her tongue out at me before running down the stairs.

i laugh to myself, following her shortly after. she grabs a pan stored in our dishwasher and sets it on the stove. opening the fridge, she grabs two eggs and cracks them into a bowl.

"you can get breakfast at school you know." i tell her, biting into an apple. "it's free."

i watch her as she takes the bread and pops two slices into the toaster and then separates the egg whites from the yolk. "i am never gonna get into culinary school eating the schools breakfast instead of cooking my own." she says in a duh tone, cooking the eggs and seasoning them. "i can't neglect my duties."

"maybe focus on the fact that if you keep making breakfast for us, we'd have to spend more money on groceries when it could be invested into your college money?" i replied back in the same tone she had used before.

she looked at me, an eyebrow furrowed and handing me my toast with eggs, "i won't get in if i don't practice."

i shrug, taking a bite out of my toast, "i guess you're right." i say, tossing her backpack to her. she catches it, slightly being caught off guard, "now let's go or we'll be late."

we sneak past the living room where our mom lay, drunk and hungover from last night. our mom slept through thunder, but if she hears the slightest noise from the door opening or closing, she's awake within seconds.

allie and i hate seeing her like this. she's a mess. i only wish for allie to grow up with a normal mom. a normal family because she deserves it. but she'll never get it and that's why i want her dreams to come true so badly. she's the most down to earth girl i know despite being so bossy.

after making it out of the house successfully, allie hops into my beat down car. the middle school is on the way to my school, so dropping allie off is something i normally do.

"is sonny coming with us today?" allie asks, buckling in her seatbelt and setting her backpack down between her legs.

"yep." everyday during junior and sophomore year, i'd pick up my bestfriend, sonny since he was on the way. him and my sister have developed that special relationship in which i have with her. he's like her other brother and mine too. sonny has been with my through thick and thin. we grew up together. i'd die for him.

as i drove out of the driveway, i headed towards sonny's house. glancing at allie, i notice she's looking outside the window and at the view of the large body of water.

this world is so big, and yet we've never been outside of brooklyn bay. i wish we had the money to go on a nice vacation, but we barely have enough for groceries and gas as it is.

i pull up outside of sonny's house. we watch him run out, a big smile on his face. he opens the car door and sits in the back. "hey e. alexandra. stole shotgun again i see." he says in a joking manner.

she turns around facing him, "you'll never get it as long as i live." she returns the jokes, her eyes mysterious.

we drive up the hill, entering the north side of town. "uh oh, looks like we're entering preppyville." sonny isn't such a big fan of the north side people. they're stuck up rich's who flaunt their money. i haven't grown a liking to them either, but we're stuck with them. what could we do?

allie stares in awe at the beautiful suburban houses on the street, the roads being so incredible smooth. "look! that house has a dog!" she exclaims, a huge smile on her face.

"our neighbor has a dog?" i say, a slight chuckle in my voice.

she shakes her head, "that is not a dog. that is a monster!" she claims, over exaggerating her sentence.

i laugh, pulling up to her middle school. all the kids her age file into the building, excited for their first day back. sonny and i scream our goodbyes to her as she exited the car, embarrassed.

he jumps to the front seat, tapping the side of the car through the open window signaling for us to go.

as we drove for another minute or so, we talked about how we thought our senior year was gonna go. i for one wasn't gonna let it go to waste. this was my last year of highschool and i wanted to make it one to remember.

"wow, so many tan, beautiful girls this year." sonny says, checking out every girl in the parking lot as they walked to the building. i find a parking spot, close to the entrance. when we exit the car, we walk together through those doors just like we have every year of our high school career.

"damn, check out them preppy girls. don't make eye contact, you'll turn to stone." sonny jokes, patting my back as he laughed. i chuckled, shoving him slightly.

i used to have an intense crush on a north side girl freshmen year. let's just say it did not end well. the only person of our friend group to know every single detail is sonny. i trust the dude with every ounce of me.

"maybe just stick to south side girls this year, yeah?" he chuckles, before running over to our other friends who stood in the hall ways checking out the new meat.

my friends seem like total assholes, but that's because they are. sonny makes jokes a lot whom some people might take to heart. some of my friends are involved in gangs and gang activity. some of them are already dads.

i'd probably be just like them if i didn't have one thing holding me back. one thing from throwing my entire life away like they did. my sister. i'd do anything for her just to succeed. i work at a garage right now, fixing cars, taking as many shifts as i can just so i can raise the money for her.

for me, however, i'll figure something out eventually.

"hey dude, i'll meet you back at lunch, okay?" sonny tells me once the last bell rings. i watch as everyone rushes to their first classes of the day. "you got it bro." i replied before walking over to my class as well.

END OF CHAPTER ONE

new book! many plot twists. many heartbreaking scenes. many heartwarming scenes. lots of drama. lots of hate. lots of love.

:))))